The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has always been an
original reader of texts, understanding their many rich and
multiple historical, aesthetic, and political meanings and effects.
In Profanations, Agamben has assembled for the first time some of
his most pivotal essays on photography, the novel, and film. A
meditation on memory and oblivion, on what is lost and what
remains, Profanations proves yet again that Agamben is one of the
most provocative writers of our time. In ten essays, Agamben
ponders a series of literary and philosophical problems: the
relation among genius, ego, and theories of subjectivity; the
problem of messianic time as explicated in both images and lived
experience; parody as a literary paradigm; and the potential of
magic to provide an ethical canon. The range of topics and themes
addressed here attest to the creativity of Agamben's singular mode
of thought and his persistent concern with the act of witnessing,
sometimes futile, sometimes earth-shattering: the talking cricket
in Pinocchio; "helpers" in Kafka's novels; pictorial
representations of the Last Judgment, of anonymous female faces,
and of "Rosebud," the infamous object of obsession in Citizen Kane.
"In Praise of Profanity," the central essay of this small but dense
book, confronts the question of profanity as the crucial political
task of the moment. An act of resistance to every form of
separation, the concept of profanation reorients perceptions of how
power, consumption, and use interweave to produce an urgent
political modality and desire: to profane the unprofanable. Agamben
not only provides a new and potent theoretical model but describes
it with a writerly style that itself forges inescapable links among
literature, politics, and philosophy.Giorgio Agamben is Professor
of Aesthetics at the University of Venice. His many publications
include Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Remnants of
Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive (Zone Books), The Coming
Community, and State of Exception.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
